Josh’s Take: Ottawa Senators fall flat in Toronto

The Ottawa Senators visited the Toronto Maple Leafs last night in the first game of the 2019-2020 NHL regular season. The end result was nothing to be excited about. So, what happened?

The Ottawa Senators have usually played pretty good against the Mike Babcock led Toronto Maple Leafs over the last few seasons, but last night was not one of those games. The Senators came out strong but quickly fell apart. Let’s take a deep dive into what went wrong last night!

Brady Tkachuk scored the first goal of the season for the Ottawa Senators, taking a pass from Connor Brown in front of the net with about 25 seconds gone in the first period. Talk about a fast start! What looked like a promising start to the game quickly faded. I saw three critical areas that led to the Ottawa Senators losing last night: penalties, defensive zone play, and a bad power play.

Before I get into the breakdown of what went wrong, I feel like I should highlight Scott Sabourin for scoring his first National Hockey League goal in his NHL debut last night. I’m sure he’s lived quite the week since signing his contract, but congratulations to him on his first NHL goal! Maybe Auston Matthews will know who he is now!

Penalties

If the Ottawa Senators are going to remain competitive night in and night out this season, they are going to have to stay out of the box. They simply cannot give their opponents opportunities to score on them with the man advantage. Special teams are going to be a huge factor for the Ottawa Senators this season, and if the team continues to take stupid and useless penalties then they are going to lose a lot of games.

The Senators took five penalties in the game last night, and luckily their penalty kill units looked decent, only getting scored on once. But if the team continues to force their penalty kill units to roll out there and try to successfully kill off 4-5 penalties per game, the score will get ugly.

More from SenShot

• Crunch. Crush. Grind. Mash. The Tyler Kleven Story
• Belleville Senators: What To Expect In 2023-24
• Daniel Alfredsson and Marian Hossa Hit The Ice One Final Time
• Ottawa Senators: Something’s Got to Give
• Hot Pierre Summer 2.0? Let’s Talk About The Ottawa Senators Offseason So Far!

While the team only gave up one power play goal last night, I can’t sit here and say that the Leafs power play was ineffective. That Maple Leafs team was buzzing around the offensive zone for large parts of the game last night, including on the power play. The Ottawa Senators and their penalty killing units got lucky with a few posts because the Leafs could have easily had three power play goals last night.

System-wise, I liked what I saw from the team. They played aggressive on the penalty kill and you could tell the Leafs were a little uncomfortable with it at times. But to put it bluntly, the Leafs skill was simply too much for the Ottawa Senators to overcome last night. I tweeted during the game that it felt like a cat and mouse game, I’ll let you fine people determine who the cat was and who the mouse was.

So while the play of the penalty units could be a positive from last night’s game, the fact that they were on the ice so much was a definite negative. The Ottawa Senators allowed the Toronto Maple Leafs to build momentum with each power play and they eventually looked like a runaway train with nothing the Senators could do to stop them.

With all that being said, I did like the addition of Anthony Duclair on the penalty kill. His versatility and speed have added a dimension to the penalty kill that has been lacking in the past few seasons. His speed is definitely a threat against opposing teams. He almost had a short-handed goal last night, but Andersen came up with a big stop. Duclair should be able to continue getting some short-handed scoring chances, and I’d expect him to be able to score a few short-handed goals.

Defensive Zone Play

Look, I understand that defensive zone play is going to be an issue for almost every game this season so you guys might want to get used to reading about it in my game recaps! DJ Smith is coming in here and is tasked with the job of turning this team around. This team was absolute hot garbage defensively for the past two seasons; this won’t be fixed or changed overnight. It’s a process, and that process will more than likely take the entire season. Minimum.

If there is one glaring difference that I have noticed about the Ottawa Senators’ defensive zone style is how the centre is utilized. It’s apparent that in Smith’s system, the centreman will become a hybrid in the defensive zone. His job is going to be covering the slot, providing the two defencemen with support. Ideally, this allows the centreman to relieve some of the pressure on the defencemen and provide them with a quick and short outlet pass to get the play going in the other direction.

More from Editorials

• Ottawa Senators: Something’s Got to Give
• Hot Pierre Summer 2.0? Let’s Talk About The Ottawa Senators Offseason So Far!
• EXCLUSIVE: Making Moments With Senators Forward Egor Sokolov
• Joonas Korpisalo: The Solution To The Senators’ Goaltending Problem
• Ottawa Senators: To Build Or Demolish? New Arena Discussion

I like that idea, but it is going to take a lot of time before everyone gets used to it and it is mastered. You could tell they were clearly still trying to fully grasp it last night. I thought many defencemen looked like they got outmuscled and outworked in the defensive zone. Look, it’s okay not to be as skilled right now. This is a rebuilding team so them lacking some skill is normal. But what I don’t find okay is when players get outmuscled and outworked. There is absolutely no excuse for that. It’s laziness plain and simple!

Oh, and the fact that the Ottawa Senators were outshot 42-26, yes you read that right, is largely related to the defensive zone play. That cat and mouse game was just awful to watch. The shots against is going to have to come down dramatically if this team is to have any amount of success. But then again, this has been a theme over the past two seasons.

Struggles on the Power Play

The Ottawa Senators went 0-3 last night with the man advantage. Guy Boucher once said that the elite power plays in the NHL score 20% of the time, and he wasn’t totally wrong. It’s unfair to expect a team to score every time they get a power play. I get that.

What I didn’t like about last night’s power play was that they seemed to be losing momentum from it. They struggled with entering the zone, and then once they were in the zone, they struggled with creating and generating any kind of chances.

The Ottawa Senators are going to need their power play to be a successful one this season. Special teams are going to play a large factor in the amount of games this team will win this season. Just like they are going to need a strong penalty kill, they are going to need a strong power play to score opportune goals for them.

Last night I saw two power play units that were simply not firing on all cylinders. They weren’t clicking, and it was obvious. I know, it’s the first game and I probably shouldn’t get this worked up. But if there is one thing you guys are going to learn about me is that I hate watching this team lose! (Yes, it has been a really hard two years for me!)

Josh’s Player of the Game: Brady Tkachuk

I have a feeling that Brady Tkachuk is going to have this honour a lot this season. I just love watching this kid play. He never takes a shift off, and he’s always working. The Ottawa Senators have a gem with this kid. He leads on the ice with his play and determination. Oh, and he scored the first goal of the season!

Josh’s Struggling Player: Drake Batherson

I really feel bad for Drake Batherson. The Ottawa Senators clearly have such high hopes for this kid, but I don’t think he’s ready to be playing at the NHL level full time. He didn’t really have that great of a training camp but made the final roster anyways. I think out of necessity more than anything. The entire third line of Artem Anisimov, Tyler Ennis, and Drake Batherson got absolutely destroyed by the Leafs last night, so I don’t know if it is entirely fair to point only to Batherson, but he seemed to me to be the player that struggled the most out there. I can’t imagine the team putting up with too many more showings like this. I will say this: if he continues to struggle, they need to send him back to Belleville. They can’t afford to ruin his development and confidence.

Do you love the Ottawa Senators enough to write about them? Are you looking to get more involved in the Ottawa Senators community this season? SenShot is looking to add more dedicated contributors to our team! Apply today!

The Ottawa Senators next take to the ice this coming Saturday as they host Kaapo Kakko and the New York Rangers.

Here’s what the coach had to say following last night’s game

Ottawa Senators fans, what were your thoughts from last night’s loss to the Maple Leafs? What did you see that you liked? Didn’t like? What are your expectations for this season? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!